The present invention relates generally to ink printers, the inks used in such ink printers, and the apparatus and method for delivering the ink into the printer.
Solid ink or phase change ink printers conventionally receive ink in a solid form and convert the ink to a liquid form for jetting onto a receiving medium. The printer receives the solid ink either as pellets or as ink sticks in a feed channel. With solid ink sticks, the solid ink sticks are either gravity fed or spring loaded through the feed channel toward a heater plate. The heater plate melts the solid ink into its liquid form. In a printer that receives solid ink sticks, the sticks are either gravity fed or spring loaded into a feed channel and pressed against a heater plate to melt the solid ink into its liquid form. U.S. Pat. No. 5,734,402 for a Solid Ink Feed System, issued Mar. 31, 1998 to Rousseau et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,861,903 for an Ink Feed System, issued Jan. 19, 1999 to Crawford et al. describe exemplary systems for delivering solid ink sticks in a phase change ink printer.
A solid ink feed system for a phase change ink jet printer includes at least one feed channel for solid ink sticks, and feed channel keying means included in the feed channel to block passage along the feed channel of an ink stick that does not have a corresponding ink stick keying means.
An ink stick includes an ink stick body comprising a front surface, a rear surface, and a plurality of longitudinal surfaces connecting the front surface and the rear surface. The ink stick additionally includes at least one key element formed in one of the longitudinal surfaces, in which the key element extends along the longitudinal surface through the rear surface of the ink stick body.
A method of feeding solid ink to the melt plate of a phase change ink jet printer includes placing an ink stick in a solid ink feed channel, moving the ink stick along the solid ink feed channel. The method further includes moving the ink stick past a feed channel key in the solid ink feed channel if the ink stick has a key element corresponding to the key in the solid ink feed channel, and blocking the ink stick at the feed channel key if the ink stick does not have a key element corresponding to the key in the solid ink feed channel.